The United States and Soviet Union are on the brink of war. Tensions between the world's superpowers are rife and war has broken out across Europe whilst a Soviet invasion force heads toward Seattle.

World in Conflict is set in the year 1989. The game's story portrays a "what if" version of events, for example instead of the Berlin Wall falling or the Cold War dissipating the exact opposite has happened and a bitter conflict has erupted between Western nations and the Soviet Union; the World is in Conflict...

War is coming home...

Earlier this year I was able to get some hands on time with World in Conflict's single player and multiplayer games. I'll cover both aspects of the game within this preview. To date I have attended two press events for World in Conflict and every time I see the game, it just looks amazing, rich in detail, and with a back story written and researched by Larry Bond, better known for Red Storm Rising, which he co-authored with Tom Clancy.

World in Conflict is a game that throws you directly into the action and breaths a new lease of life into the strategy genre. Whenever I've attended press events in the past, I usually have a quick chat with the journalists attending to to find out what they thought about what they had seen. The reaction to World in Conflict from the majority of the press has been one of sheer amazement. The developers have gone to great lengths in order to please fans and retain an authentic feel to World in Conflict. Each unit within the game was painstakingly researched and this shows: if you take a look at the tanks or the aircraft you'll notice that they actually represent the vehicles of the time frame. The art department has also managed to capture an authentic feel to the game, especially with the detail of the buildings and weapons.

Pine Valley's in trouble!

I played a pre-alpha build of World in Conflict and this build contained one single player level and two multiplayer maps. On starting World in Conflict you are guided through the story with CGI movies providing an overview of the objectives within the mission. I started playing level 3 of the single player campaign, set in a typical American town called Pine Valley. The Russians have taken up positions in the map and it is your job to eliminate them.

You begin the game by selecting a role. You can pick from four roles: Amour, Infantry, Air or Support. Each role provides you with different tactical advantages over the others, for example Air Cover can take out most ground-based vehicles whilst anti-air will wipe out air units. Each unit has its own unique ability like infantry being able to plant explosives and blow up buildings or artillery being able to decimate an area from afar.

Upon starting the level, I started the game with infantry and a couple of tanks. My mission was to take out a watchtower with a sniper who is taking pot shots at ground units by the supermarket. Instead of moving my troops into harms way, I ordered them into the tanks. I moved the tanks over to the watchtower and enabled a smoke cloud to cover my position while I ordered the troops out. I planted a bomb on the watchtower using the cover of smoke and ordered my troops back into the tanks. Once my units had moved to a safe distance and disembarked, an explosion at the base of the watchtower triggered its demise and the completion of the objective.

The second objective introduced command points - circular areas around a specific point on the map, in this case a supermarket. Once I had moved my units into the white circles they turned green. An icon indicated that machine gun turrets were fortifying the building. After a short period Anti Air - Tank fortifications appeared giving further defensive capabilities to the newly captured position. Enemy tanks opened fire but the defenses keep them at bay until my units returned fire and wiped them out. Pine Valley was an interesting level. You have to capture certain points in the mission in order to progress in the campaign. Visually the game looks solid and as this build was a pre-alpha, I really can't wait for the final version.

Intense Strategy

There are a number of command points in the game and once you've captured those you will start to dominate the map. You'll notice a domination bar at the top of the screen and this is indicated by half of the bar filled with a US flag and the other half with a Russian flag. Once you've started capturing command points you'll see the bar change to give you a visual indication of how well you are doing. When your flag is dominating the bar then you'll win the game, however you'll have to ensure that your captured areas are well defended to ward off any attacks.

The really cool thing about World in Conflict is that you can call in Support Weapons at any time and these are extremely powerful weapons for all manner of attacks. You can order an artillery barrage, cluster bombs or even a devastating nuclear strike. The more Tactical Aid (TA) points you earn, the better support weapon attacks you can unleash on the enemy. You earn TA points by capturing command points and engaging the enemy. While I was playing the game, I noticed that there were enemy units taking cover in a forest. When I checked the amount of TA points I had, I selected a napalm strike on the forest. Twenty seconds later and an aircraft flew in and napalmed the entire area, the trees were set alight and the enemy was successfully hit.

Total Domination

Once I had played Pine Valley to death, we were given the opportunity to play the developers of World in Conflict in a Multiplayer game. The server was set up and we started the game with eight players on each team. You start playing with roughly 4000 points, which you can use to call in your units. You can order roughly 4-5 units per reinforcement call. After a few seconds waiting, a cargo plane illuminated the area with flares and my units parachuted onto the ground. I was using amour and I began by capturing the bridge command point on the US farmland map. Within minutes my units were under attack by helicopters and as I didn't have anything to defend myself, I requested anti-air support. (You can request help from your teammates by pressing the 'Q' button and selecting the relevant command prompt). Anti-air arrived and took care of the attacking helicopters, phew!

If you press down on the 'M' key, you see an overhead mega map. This map is extremely effective for managing your team. You can pretty much control or guide your team using the mega map. You can share TA points with allies or teammates, so say for example you wanted to destroy a location with a lot of enemy units, you could share your TA points and once you have enough, let loose a nuke. Watching the nuke in action is certainly a treat, from the massive mushroom cloud to the radioactive fog – the nuke promises to be the ultimate weapon against the enemy.

During my time with the game, I found that playing as a team and having each team member in a certain role provides an intense game play experience and actually works well. Overall the multiplayer game was a lot of fun and I think that the developers have created a unique experience with World in Conflict.